"You can't have a light without a dark to stick it in." — Arlo Guthrie

Monday, April 10, 2006

An Open Letter to Georgia's Grand Master, F. Ray Jackson

An Open Letter to F. Ray Jackson, Grand Master of Georgia, by Brother Jeff Peace

Please tell the Masonic world how many more young Masons you will expel without the benefit of due process? How many more Masons will be denied their rights as brothers and Freemasons? How do you justify your witch-hunts against the newest members of the Craft? These are just a few things so many Masons would like to have answers to, yet you sit silently in your office watching our beloved fraternity die a little more each day.

Your predecessor, Albert Garner, Jr.... deceived the young Masons. He gave them his word that they would never become the victims of a witch-hunt, but he broke his word and used the materials they freely provided him to bring harm upon them. Why do you support these abominable actions? Have you even bothered to sit down with these young men and hear their side of the story?

It is becoming clear to many that Albert Garner, Jr. sold his Masonic soul to the Scottish Rite, who demanded the heads of these young Masons. He sold their Masonic future so that he could obtain the title of Personal Representative to the Sovereign Grand Inspector General of the state of Georgia. F. Ray Jackson, what do you have to gain from continuing his un-Masonic policies against brother Master Masons? Did you not swear at the altar before God to defend the good names of these brothers? Was your word given so easily and without thought that your conscience allows you to break it without remorse?

Please tell us all why the Rite of the Rose Cross of Gold was labeled clandestine? They turned over their organization to the Grand Lodge of Georgia. Why couldn’t any issues have been resolved in a brotherly and amicable manner? Would it not have been better for Freemasonry if the Grand Lodge of Georgia had set an example of how Masons can work together for the benefit of the Craft?

What are you afraid of, Grand Master? What or who are you protecting? Your credibility as a Mason is in question and your conduct before the world brings into question the moral integrity of the Grand Lodge of Georgia.

Only one question remains: Do you have the fortitude required to set aside your ego and repair all of the damage that you and Albert Garner, Jr. have done to Freemasonry? As Grand Master, do you have the wisdom to heal the wounds you have inflicted upon the innocent?

—Jeff Peace, Master MasonRite of the Rose Cross of Gold

Brother Jeff Peace is one of the founding members of the Rite of the Rose Cross of Gold. He is a Masonic historian and ritualist who has spent more than eighteen years studying the early formative years of Freemasonry. He can trace his own Masonic hertitage, father-to-son, in an unbroken line back many generations. Brother Jeff and other members of the Rose Cross of Gold are regular Masons who without trial had their names stricken from their Blue Lodges for failiing to sign letters of renunciation that the Grand Lodge of Georgia demanded of them.

The PROBLEM with Freemasonry is that people who think JUST LIKE YOU DO — literalist Christians — have overrun the lodges and tried to turn them INTO churches, and people not very different from the Jimmy Swaggarts and Jim Bakkers and Bob Larsons have taken over the leadership roles.

Please — go set up a tent revival outside every lodge under the Grand Lodge of Georgia's jurisdiction and preach your warped "Masonry is Satanic" rantings, call out the fundamentalist Christians and take them home with you!

No - You have not being paying attention. Those who have turned the lodge into a church are only doing so in a different way than you are. You are just angry that they have made the church look differently and operate differently than what YOU would have liked......point made ---- you are worshipping your god in the lodge! The sad fact is - it is a false god.

Therefore, those who are doing so - are doing so in attempt to worship their god - and if they would read Holy Scripture - they would discover that you cannot worship the true and living God at the alters of false gods and through the name of false gods!

Josh BuiceSaved by the GRACE of the true and living GOD - no craft needed!

REV. Buice,Please refrain from spreading your point of view here. It is not welcome, neither is it needed. Christ's church is far from perfect, as can be evidenced by the highly publicized problems facing many denominations, yours included, today.There is no covert plot to subvert Christianity here. We are Masons talking Masonry. You are not. You are the interloper here and you are not welcome. I have monitored your rants and have been pushed away from the Baptist denomination, as have many, by your negativity and narrow-mindedness. Your heart is in the right place but you're preaching to the choir.Go away! Shake the dust from your feet and go on down the road. Your shrill bleating of your beligerent message borders on harassment. We live in a free country and we are practicing our freedom of speech and to some, freedom of religion. We also have a right not to be harassed by people like you.Sincerely,F. Roy Dean Schlipp

To Rev. Buice,There are many here who are not Christian. They have heard your message and have not been swayed. They have made their choice so it is now time for you to go away. We heard your opinions and your arguments. We don't want to hear anymore! There is not one person here that receives this blog that cares about your opinion. You are not making any converts here. You are like the dinner guest that just won't go home after the festivities. No matter how many times you praise God or make ostentatious overtures about how great the glory of God is... You only further alienate the people of this blog and give them a further reason to not look into Christianity as a path to God.You're like the conspiracy theorist gone drunk with religion. Take some advice and move on to more fertile fields of sheep to shepherd.

I had told Jeff Peace years ago to either be a part regular Freemasonry or not. I told him that either way is fine but you cannot be both. Even so, Jeff used some less than Masonic tactics when it came to the Rite of Memphis. He disbanded it on his own accord and without the consent of any of the brethren involved or its Sovereign Sanctuary He then went into overtime creating several orders. These again were to be esoteric Masonic orders. He not being an esotericist and effectively alienating all esotericists who wanted to help, isolated himself to a group of followers.

I wish all Masons nothing but the best. We have a long hard road to hoe actually when it comes to issues plaguing the fraternity. One way is to attempt to work with progressively minded grand officers. The other is to go it alone.

As to Josh, wow, not up on our reading eh? Please read Rev. Hans Küng's "The Catholic Church : A Short History" to review the debauchery which is Christianty and its developement down through the ages.

"Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites." - Thomas Jefferson (ref. Bartlett's 16th Ed., p.343)

"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony

"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason: The morning daylight appears plainer when you put out your candle... I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life, I absenteed myself from Christian assemblies... Lighthouses are more helpful than churches." - Benjamin Franklin

Rev. Josh - You are so closed minded! I'm wondering how has Freemasonry wronged you for you to judge it so harshly all the time? Have you ever even set foot inside a Lodge? Do you even know what goes on in a Lodge? I believe your answer is no, if so you have no leg to stand on as to who, what or if Masons worshp anything in Lodge!

I couldn't agree more with Bro. Schlipp; you should refrain from making your uninformed comments here.

I for one am a Christian and a Mason. My Masonic journey has helped me helped me become a better man. At no time has any Brother Mason told me that I have to believe differently or believe in what they believe.

We all agree in that their is one Great Architect of the Universe! To you my uninformed friend it is Jehovah God, to Groucho it is the Sun God. As a man you should respect that.

Your duty to sheppard lost souls... none that subscribe to this blog are in that category. You should go preach your word somewhere else. We all know where we are going when our journey is done.

As a Mason I know that I will meet with my creator above and stand in the great Lodge in Heaven above.

This website is the personal site of a Master Mason. It is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or paid for by any particular lodge, grand lodge or other Masonic organization. Comments and editorials appearing on this site are the opinions of those writing them, and not necessarily the operator of this site.

If you are a Mason and are offended by the content, ask yourself why and then go fix yourself.